“Sit right there in a row in front of me, so that I may have a good look at you, young ladies. Now, tell me all of your names. This one I know: Mistress Elinor Butler, an American Princess. Wilhelmina Campbell? Ah, you are the brave young woman who saves people’s lives, Anne Starbuck Brown? You’re Irish, my dear, I can tell by your blue eyes and your pretty, impudent face. Mary Anastasia Price? Those eyes of yours, my child, are too earnest and serious for this wicked world.”
Mrs. Paxton-Steele had left her room this morning for the first time since the explosion, and the two Edwards, her grandsons, as like as two peas in a pod, had pushed her rolling chair down to the beach. Then she had sent her man servant scurrying back to the hotel with her compliments to the Motor Maids—and would they do her the pleasure of calling on her that morning on the sands?
Her tongue was still quite thick and her head shook a little as she spoke, but the old eagle sat as erect as ever, the brim of her garden hat flapping up and down in the breeze as it always had.
The girls felt sorry for the aged woman whose early life had been filled with sorrows and disappointments and her last years poisoned by scheming relatives who desired her money.
“So these are the Motor Maids,” went on Mrs. Paxton-Steele. “Do you know, my dears, why I asked you to spend one of your golden hours with a stricken old woman like me? It is because I want to thank you. You have taught me the second great lesson of my life. The first one I learned when I was a young woman. The second one now comes to me on the brink of the grave.
“A vain, cruel, stupid bully! A selfish old woman, eh?”
Elinor flushed. How disrespectful those words seemed to her now!
But the old eagle chuckled to herself.
“I have certainly been all those things,” she continued, “and I want to thank you, Mistress Elinor, for speaking out your mind. You might have added blind, too. I have been blind—blind.
“My poor boys who have been dead so long, have been restored to me in their own sons, and I am very happy.”
Here she paused and closed her eyes to hide the tears which had welled into them.
“Yes, I am happy,” she went on. “They are fine boys, both of them. And all of this I owe to the Motor Maids. You have done what I could not do. You have righted a great wrong and reunited a broken, scattered family.
“I am glad—yes, proud, that my new grandchildren are half American. And now give me your hand, each one of you, and run along and play. I am old and tired, but, thank God, I am still alive and able to enjoy this last blessing of my life.”
One by one the four girls bowed their heads over the hand of the broken old eagle, pretending not to notice the two tears which trickled down her furrowed cheeks.
They smiled at the two Edwards, who stood like sentinels at the side of her chair, waved a gay salutation to Virginia and Georgiana coming toward them arm in arm, and all but collided with Mr. Ignatius Donahue following behind at a slower pace.
“Where are you running away to, my pretty maids?” he cried, spreading out his arms playfully to block their passage.
“This is our last day at Palm Beach, you know,” answered Billie. “We leave for home to-night, and we are going to ride out in the Comet to say good-bye to the Duffys.”
“And we are to have no more jolly picnics?” he asked.
“Not unless you come to West Haven, Mr. Donahue, and let us take you on a Comet picnic to Seven League Island.”
Mr. Donahue looked at them with that humorous, quizzical expression that they remembered to have noticed in his photograph.
“I’m going to have a picnic party myself in a few months,” he said, “and if that picnic comes off, you may see a private car backed upon a side track in West Haven, and you will know, if you do, that at the happiest period of my life I have come to spend a day with the four nice girls who helped to bring it about.”
“Why, what does he mean?” asked Elinor, as they hurried on to the hotel.
“I think he means he is going to marry Mrs. l’Estrange,” answered Billie. “He has brought a big osteopath down here to see her and something’s being put to rights in her spine. She’s expected to get perfectly well, Virginia told me.”
“But how did we bring anything about?”
“I can’t say, unless it was the Comet, bless him, that got us to the burning house in time to save her life.”
The red car was waiting for them when they reached the hotel, and Miss Campbell, also, on the piazza, her peach-blossom face framed in the familiar motor veil of sky blue.
Presently they rolled swiftly away toward the home of their good friends, the Duffys, and in the memories of all who saw them start on that bright morning, there was left no happier impression of Florida’s holiday glory than the light in the faces of the four Motor Maids.
If the girls themselves could have seen, stretching far into the future, the road of experience and adventure over which the Comet was to take them, their faces would have been aglow with anticipation as well as with present pleasure. For the way that they were next to travel is one that each and all should know, and even if you can go in no other party, we are sure that you will enjoy following “The Motor Maids Across the Continent,” in the story of their next trip.
Girls Banner Series
A desirable assortment of books for girls, by standard and favorite authors. Each title is complete and unabridged. Printed on a good quality of paper from large, clear type and bound in cloth. Each book is wrapped in a special multi-colored jacket.
1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Carroll
2. Alice Through the Looking Glass Carroll
3. Campfire Girls on a Long Hike Francis
4. Daddy’s Girl Meade
5. Dog of Flanders, A Ouida
6. Elsie Dinsmore Finley
7. Ethel Hollister's 1st summer as a Campfire Girl Benson
8. Ethel Hollister's 2nd summer as a Campfire Girl Benson
9. Faith Gartney’s Girlhood Whitney
10. Four Little Mischiefs Mulholland
11. Polly, A New Fashioned Girl Meade
12. World of Girls Meade
For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 40 cents
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO
Victory Boy Scout Series
Stories by a writer who possesses a thorough knowledge of this subject. Handsomely bound in cloth; colored jacket wrapper.
1. The Campfires of the Wolf Patrol
2. Woodcraft; or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good
3. Pathfinder; or, the Missing Tenderfoot
4. Great Hike; or, The Pride of Khaki Troop
5. Endurance Test; or, How Clear Grit Won the Day
6. Under Canvas; or, the Search for the Carteret Ghost
7. Storm-bound; or, a Vacation among the Snow Drifts
8. Afloat; or, Adventures on Watery Trails
9. Tenderfoot Squad; or, Camping at Raccoon Bluff
10. Boy Scouts in an Airship
11. Boy Scout Electricians; or, the Hidden Dynamo
12. Boy Scouts on Open Plains
For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 40 cents
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO
The Boys’ Elite Series
12mo, cloth. Price 75c each.
Contains an attractive assortment of books for boys by standard and favorite authors. Printed from large, clear type on a superior quality of paper, bound in a superior quality of binders’ cloth, ornamented with illustrated original designs on covers stamped in colors from unique and appropriate dies. Each book wrapped in attractive jacket.
1. Cudjo’s Cave, Trowbridge
2. Green Mountain Boys,
3. Life of Kit Carson, Edward L. Ellis
4. Tom Westlake’s Golden Luck, Perry Newberry
5. Tony Keating’s Surprises, Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy)
6. Tour of the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
The Girls’ Elite Series
12mo, cloth. Price 75c each.
Contains an assortment of attractive and desirable books for girls by standard and favorite authors. The books are printed on a good quality of paper in large clear type. Each title is complete and unabridged. Bound in clothene, ornamented on the sides and back with attractive illustrative designs and the title stamped on front and back.
1. Bee and the Butterfly, Lucy Foster Madison
2. Dixie School Girl, Gabrielle E. Jackson
3. Girls of Mount Morris, Amanda Douglas
4. Hope’s Messenger, Gabrielle E. Jackson
5. The Little Aunt, Marion Ames Taggart
6. A Modern Cinderella, Amanda Douglas
For sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of 75c
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO
Radio Boys Series
1. Radio Boys in the Secret Service; or, Cast Away on an Iceberg, Frank Honeywell
2. Radio Boys on the Thousand Islands; or, The Yankee Canadian Wireless Trail, Frank Honeywell
3. Radio Boys in the Flying Service; or, Held for Ransom by Mexican Bandits, J. W. Duffield
4. Radio Boys Under the Sea; or, The Hunt for the Sunken Treasure, J. W. Duffield
5. Radio Boys Cronies; or, Bill Brown’s Radio, Wayne Whipple
6. Radio Boys Loyalty; or, Bill Brown Listens In, Wayne Whipple
Peggy Parson’s Series
By Annabel Sharp
A popular and charming series of Girl’s books dealing in an interesting and fascinating manner with the the life and adventures of Girlhood so dear to all Girls from eight to fourteen years of age. Printed from large clear type on superior quality paper, multicolor jacket. Bound in cloth.
1. Peggy Parson Hampton Freshman
2. Peggy Parson at Prep School
For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of 75c.
M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
701-733 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO